Fall Check-in On Our Dawn Redwood - 2018

Back on Earth Day 2017, we planted a small Dawn Redwood tree in our backyard.  This was in the middle of construction of our house and we weren't even living there.  I figured, we'd get the tree in and give it a little bit of a head start.  The only problem...since I didn't tend to it for the first few months, it didn't do well.

By October of last year, I was questioning if the tree was going to make it.  Take a look at the photo here to see how bare it was by mid-October.

And ultimately died.   So, we replaced it this year.  Same spot, but more care in terms of water.

And by October of *this* year, the tree wasn't bare.  But instead was sprouting some new growth.

And now?  See the photo at the top of this post?  The entire tree has turned a bronze color and appears poised to drop all of it's needles very soon.  Which, based on what I've seen on other deciduous conifers is appropriate behavior.

The tree also appears to have set some buds for the Spring, so I am confident that I've put it into as good of a spot to come out of dormancy this Spring and have a healthy second year - where I'm hoping we get a little bit more 'creep' out of this tree as it grows upwards.   As a reminder, in September of this year, I measured the top of the Dawn Redwood to be just shy of 63" tall.

I'll plan on checking in on this tree come Spring and then again before the Summer heat hits so I can see what kind of height increase will have come to the tree.